"And what brings you here, Iceburg-san?" asked the woman sitting behind the front desk. Her hair was dark violet and her eyes were as well only they had a blue glint on them. Her long, stick straight hair was put up in a neat bun which showed she was professional, but then there was what she was wearing which completely shattered that professional vibe. She wore short, tree brown shorts, a tight pink tank top, and her shoes were knee high, black, open-toed sandals.

"Nmaa~… Boredom as usual, Isis," he replied while scratching the head of his little rodent friend, "Is Ratchet anywhere on the premises?"

"Yes sir." She pointed back out to the shipyard from whence he came. "Out there is your and my best bet."

He nodded to her gratefully and exited. He joined his blonde friend who was not very happy about being there on his day off seeing that he was biting into the end of his lit and smoking cigar. Iceburg sighed seeing that Paulie wasn't going to cheer up very quickly and decided to start walking around the shipyard.

"Come on, Paulie," he said while slowly moving away from him, "We are going to go searching for Ratchet."

Paulie groaned, but caught up to him quickly, not wanting to be left alone in this slightly unfamiliar carpenter's workplace. Iceburg was looking around at all of the men hard at work when someone's bellowing laugh caught his attention.

"Well! Well! Well!" came Ratchet's unmistakable voice, "Look who's come to relieve some boredom. It's Iceburg!"

Everyone in the shipyard stopped and looked over to where the voice had originated. All of their eyes opened up as they watched Ratchet and Iceburg approach each other with a smile and greet one another with a hand shake. When Iceburg came, it always signaled that he was bored of being in Water 7 for the moment and wanted a place to get away, not that anyone there minded him being there. In all honestly, they liked it when he was.

"Iceburg-san?!" screamed a feminine voice from across the wide, open, worn, and sandy path way.

Iceburg turned to see who had just exclaimed his name and he smiled. He never had to wait very long before she greeted him.

Manami bounded over the platforms with men on them that were working, and slid down a long plank of stained wood that was extremely smooth all the way down to the ground about fifteen feet a way. Her foggy gray shoes dug into the ground as she skidded to a stop and a wide grin was what she wore on her face.

"Iceburg-san!" she said happily, "Come to take a 'vacation'?"

He nodded to her with a smile as well.

"Nmaa~… As usual. I always love coming to see your bright and shining face, Manami."

Manami laughed at his flattering compliment.

"Yeah right, Iceburg," she said with a laugh, "You're just saying that to make me feel good."

"And?" he questioned, "Did it work?"

"But of course!" she replied with an even wider grin. Her grin then turned to a small smile as she saw Paulie standing there with his cigar held between his teeth rather irritated and she became curious. "What's up with you, Paulie?"

He looked at her with an expression that said he was not in the mood to talk with her or anyone at all. He stuffed his hands in his pockets letting out a rough and heavy sigh of smoke as he walked off. Manami's expression gained a confused look that seemed to ask if she had said something wrong. Iceburg placed his hand on her shoulder in reassurance.

"Don't worry, Mana," he said while bringing her attention back to him, "He's just being sore about me forcing him to come here with me."

"O… kay…" she said back, still feeling like she had said something wrong.

"So Iceburg how's everything…"

The three of them walked along one of the towering platforms with Ratchet and Iceburg side by side and Manami skipping backwards in front of them. Iceburg just smiled as Manami told him of all the different things that had happened since the last time he had come.

"And you wouldn't believe how big Hades has gotten!" she said with her arms showing her estimate on the length of what she was talking about.

"Really now?" Iceburg questioned and looked over to Ratchet who was grinning, "Nmaa~… What have you been feeding him?"

"Only what he's supposed to be eating!" Ratchet told while laughing, "He's just getting as big as he's supposed to be, he's just skinnier than he should be."

"And where is he?"

Ratchet looked to Iceburg while placing his hands on his hips and his expression asking if he really just asked that question. Iceburg gave him a smile that replied with saying yes I did and Ratchet sighed.

"Really Iceburg? Really?"

The blue haired man nodded, still with that smile.

"Well then…" Ratchet started while slipping his hands in his pockets and then looking down. He stared at the ground beneath him for a few seconds as they kept strolling along and then his head came right back up with his big smile. "Like hell I know!"

They all broke into a laugh at his answer, but their funny moment was interrupted quite suddenly.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" screamed Paulie from a little ways away from them.

As it seemed, his cigar had dropped straight out of his mouth when he yelled and Manami jumped about face to see who he was getting so upset with.

"Paulie!" she said in a stern voice as she leaned up on the balls of her feet, "You leave my partners alone!"

Paulie froze as she said "partners" and his attention shifted from the "traitors" on one level of the platform to her.

"'Partners'?!" he said in astonishment, "'Partners'?!" He snapped his arm to point at them as he spoke. "Those two tried to kill Iceburg-san! Not too mention they're from the Wo-"

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Paulie," Manami cut off, "From the World Government. I know that already!" She stomped up to him and stood her ground firmly in front of him. "They're assassins, devil fruit users, an' blah blah blah."

Luckily for her most of all the workers were too busy paying attention to their projects than listening to her. That or they didn't really care.

"Manami!" Paulie argued while leaning in towards her, "They tried to kill Ic-"

"I know Paulie, but they're still valuable to this shipyard! And they're my partners!"

"But Manam-"

"Ugh!" she growled with a harsh sigh. Her body shifted once more to face Iceburg almost fully. Her arm pointed up as she leaned over her hip slightly. "Iceburg-san!" she called getting all of his attention on her, "Does it threaten you any to have them here?"

Iceburg blinked a few times at her, processing her question and then he looked up at the two CP9 members who were standing on the edge of the wooden planks awaiting an answer. He nodded his head, confirming to himself that he had come up with his answer.

"No. It's doesn't."

Paulie's jaw practically dropped to the ground below and his eyes were completely amazed at his boss's reply.

"Are you serious?!" he yelled, not wanting to believe it, "How could you-"

Kaku appeared in front of him suddenly and stood there with a straight, serious face.

"Paulie," he started, while slipping one of his chisels into a holster, "We're not going to harm Iceburg in anyway. We promise."

Paulie's face twisted into a scowl as Kaku gave him a very small smile. His gaze went to Lucci who was still on the platform and his look soured. Lucci hadn't changed a bit. He still had Hattori sitting on his shoulder, still had that emotionless face, and still had those cold eyes. He turned back to Kaku and huffed while pushing past him.

"I don't trust you. No matter what you say to me," he spat while trudging away.

Manami sighed at Paulie's stubbornness to accepting that they wouldn't hurt Iceburg and turned to Ratchet. Her superior nudged his head up to her and she understood completely.

"C'mon, Kaku," she said while turning around and walking towards the platform, "Let's get back to work."

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE!!

I got a bit bored and wanted to throw Paulie and Iceburg in there for a little excitement. :D Couldn't help it. Well, anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Please review and keep reviewing!! It's great encouragement for me!!

-Love Maruri